An early morning fire Wednesday caused an estimated $400,000 in damage to three downtown Hutchinson businesses, closing two of them indefinitely.

Edie Ross - The Hutchinson News - eross@hutchnews.com

Wednesday

Mar 25, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 25, 2009 at 6:00 PM

Fire officials have been unable to determine the cause of the blaze, which totaled the second-floor apartment above Luxury Kitchen and Bath, 204 N. Main St., because of instability in the structure.

As firefighters attempted to remove portions of the building's back wall, the structure became too unstable for them to safely continue, said Fire Inspector Loyal Peevyhouse.

Fire officials know the blaze started in the back of the building, but they aren't certain of its exact origin, Peevyhouse said.

The department will bring in a backhoe today to remove the back wall of the building, allowing inspectors to examine the scene.

A structural engineer will also be on hand today, he said, to determine whether the front walls of the building are salvageable.

Damage

The fire was contained to the upper floor of the Luxury Kitchen and Bath building, belonging to Ted and Dixie Nieciecki, who had just moved into a loft apartment there.

However, the blaze also caused smoke and water damage to the first floor of that building, the O'Hairas Salon and Pegues buildings to the north, and the B.C. Christopher building to the south, fire officials said.

Also, at least 15 residents were evacuated from the Leon Apartments, which sits across the alley to the east, after a northwest wind blew smoke into that building. Residents were allowed to return to the apartment building at midmorning Wednesday.

Nelson Joyner, a resident of the apartment building, learned of the fire around 3 a.m. when there was a knock at his door.

"It was a police officer, and I don't remember exactly how he put it - but something like 'Get your shoes on and let's go,' and that's exactly what I did," Joyner said. "When I got downstairs, I walked across to Plaza Towers and looked up. All you could see was firemen spraying water on the building and smoke was everywhere."

Once the fire was out, business owners got their first look at the damage to their buildings.

While Oppenheimer & Co., a financial investment company in the B.C. Christopher building, reopened Wednesday morning, most businesses affected by the fire spent the day doing cleanup.

Many businesses in the B.C. Christopher building expected to reopen next week, but O'Hairas Salon and Day Spa owners Doug and Lori Wright said smoke and water damage was extensive in their building and they couldn't estimate how long it would take to reopen their business.

"There is a lot of repair and reconstruction that we will need to do," Doug Wright said.

The Wrights said most of the water damage was in the salon and day-spa area at the back of their building. The front of the building, which houses a boutique, was heavily smoke-damaged. It is unlikely the merchandise will be salvageable.

A firewall separated the Niecieckis' building from both the B.C. Christopher and the O'Hairas buildings, said Fire Chief Kim Forbes.

Firefighters pulled out false ceilings inside both adjacent buildings to examine the bottom side of the roof decks and the bottom side of the first floors to ensure that the fire didn't come through the wall, Forbes said.

Early morning battle

The three-alarm fire was called in by a resident of the Leon Apartments at 1:50 a.m., said Battalion Chief Rod Neufeld, and the department responded with every available truck. Additional personnel were called back on duty to man other units to cover the rest of the city.

Early morning hours found firefighters fighting the blaze from two aerial ladders above the historic B.C. Christopher building.

Crews also had to put out a fire burning off natural gas fumes spewing out of a natural gas meter, which had melted in the fire. The meter was on the backside of the Luxury Kitchen and Bath building.

The fire was contained by 4:18 a.m.

Two firefighters received injuries while fighting the fire, Neufeld said. One suffered from smoke inhalation and was treated at Promise Regional Medical Center and released later Wednesday. The other firefighter fractured his leg while working near the fire truck and was fitted with a cast before being released.

After the blaze was out, the department went to work estimating damages and trying to find the cause of the fire.

Early Wednesday afternoon, the department brought in a crane to remove loose stone from the northeast corner of the Luxury Kitchen and Bath building's roof, to allow fire inspectors to safely access that area.

But once crews began trying to remove portions of the back wall, it became clear that the building was too unstable to continue safely.

Around 4:45 p.m. fire crews reopened the portion of Second Avenue between Walnut and Main streets, with the expectation that work would begin again today.

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